Aoid

Aoid
aoidlíumh
Pronunciation	[ˈiːdʲlʲĩw̃]
Created by	Jukethatbox
Date	2025
Setting	Yuchi's Second Coming
Language family	Esperanto Aoid
Writing system	Latin

Aoid (aoidlíumh [ˈiːdʲlʲĩw̃]) is an Esperanto-derived language influenced by the phonology of Irish Gaelic. It is spoken primarily by members of the Céas na hAoidean; because of this, speakers of Aoid and members of the Céas are both (confusingly) called aoidean, (Aoid pronunciation: [ˈiːdʲən]) singular of aoid "child".

Aoid is the liturgical language of the Céas na hAoidean new religious movement, founded by Fí Deám in 65-Knees. The extent of the use of Aoid before the founding of the Céas is unclear; the general consensus is that the language developed from various groups of Esperantists, retroactively called the Fáirlean, who settled on the bank of the Sanzu River; after drinking the water of the Sanzu, they contracted viral amnesia which also garbled their speech, leading them to develop their unique Esperanto-derived language.

Phonology

Consonants

Aoid has 19 consonant phonemes (sonáintean). These consonants are split into two categories; the "strong" (díoch) consonants and "lean" (sbhaelte) or palatalised consonants (cf. Irish broad and slender consonants).

		Labial		Coronal		Dorsal
		strong	lean	strong	lean	strong	lean
Nasal		m	mʲ	n	ɲ	ŋ	(ŋʲ)
Stop	voiceless	p	pʲ	t	tʲ	k	kʲ
	voiced	b	bʲ	d	dʲ	g	gʲ~dʒ
Fricative	voiceless	f	fʲ	s	ʃ	x	ç
	voiced	ʋ	vʲ	(z)
Approximant	central			ɾ	ɾʲ
	lateral			l	lʲ

/z/ only appears phonemically in a couple words, such as Zámóftach "Zamenhof Day", as well as as an elition of /d/; as an elition of /d/, it can sometimes be pronounced as voiced dental fricative /ð/, especially among older and/or secular speakers. /ŋʲ/ appears as a nasal assimilative allophone before lean dorsal stops, i.e. /kʲ, gʲ~dʒ/, though the status of this allophone is controversial as some have described the phone as closer to a palatal nasal /ɲ/.

The pronunciation of /ʋ vʲ/ is variable. In common speech, /ʋ/ can be pronounced as labial-velar /w/, especially around rounded vowels.

Vowels

Aoid has seven pure vowel phonemes, called the fídealat (lit. "faithfuls, laypeople"), shown below in the table. Five of the fídealat, /a ɛ i ɔ u/, can also be lengthened, and are also nasalised before nasal consonants; these five are called the fáistean. (lit. "priests") The other non-fáistean vowels, /ə/ and /ɪ/, are unstressed allophones of /a ɛ ɔ u/ and /i/ respectively.

	Front		Central	Back
Close	i	ɪ		u
Mid	ɛ		ə	ɔ
Open			a

Stressed /u/, especially word-initally, is often pronounced more centrally as [ʊ], such as in uind [ˈʊɲdʲ] "dog".